We invite you to the annual VSI Volunteers' Day on Sat. 3rd
December
Volunteers Needed for VSI stand at Sligo IT Career Fair
Tuesday, 29 November
Long Term Volunteering Vacancy Lists November 2011
Fundraiser for Blue Rose School Project Sri Lanka Wed 23
November
SCI International Newsletter
News from SCI in Asia
Call for participants for International Seminars on Volunteering
and Employment with VSI during 2012
Teenage Programme Updates
Annual Che Guevara Pub Quiz Wednesday, 30th November
Act Now on 2015 –Deliver Ireland’s Aid promise
We invite you to the annual VSI Volunteers' Day on Sat. 3rd
December
We invite you to the annual VSI Volunteers' Day on Sat. 3rd December next from
2.00 to 5.30 pm in the Greenhouse @ Cultivate, 17 St Andrew Street, Dublin 2
The VSI Volunteers' Day is open to all VSI members, activists and supporters. It is
an opportunity for you to have your say in the running of VSI and to help with
planning VSI's programmes for 2012. It's also an important social day with the
opportunity to meet with other volunteers who have joined in a huge variety of
projects in over 60 countries world-wide. We are planning a lively Volunteers Day
which will include –
Workshops on - increasing the number of VSI volunteers in 2012; new
Irish projects for 2012; Devising new fundraising projects to support our
work:
The VSI Annual General Meeting with reports on a wide variety of
volunteering activities from all over the world
More details
Volunteers Needed for VSI stand at Sligo IT Career Fair Tuesday, 29
November 10-3pm
VSI needs 2 volunteers to help with our stand at the Sligo IT Careers Fair. Contact
Tom at VSI if you can help.
Long Term Volunteering Vacancy Lists November 2011
SCI branches and partners worldwide are searching for long term volunteers
(including some EVS projects) in Africa (Nigeria) in Asia ( Azerbaijan, Indonesia,
Sri Lanka, Thailand); in the Mediterranean region (Palestine); in Europe (Croatia,
Great Britain, Moldova, Russia, Spain, Ukraine ); in North America (Canada and
USA). More details
Fundraiser for Blue Rose School Project Sri Lanka Wed 23
November in Bankers Pub, Trinity St., Dublin 2 7.9.00pm
Two VSI volunteers took part in a month long volunteer project in Sri Lanka this
summer. They are organising a fundraising event for one of the projects, the Blue
Rose School in Kandy, Sri Lanka. This is a school which caters for over 40 children
and adults with special needs. Read more
SCI International Newsletter
The latest newsletter from SCI International contains articles on a wide variety of
volunteering projects and initiatives from Lake Baikal to Belgium to Ukraine, Sri
Lanka and a few other places. Read it here.
News from SCI in Asia
Here you can find the latest newsletter from SCI branches in Asia. There are lots of
interesting stories from projects and working groups in Sri Lanka, Japan, Australia,
India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
Call for participants for International Seminars on Volunteering
and Employment with VSI during 2012
Would you like to explore with us how volunteering can enhance employability?
We are currently searching for participants for a Learning Partnership to explore how
volunteering, can enhance employability.
Volunteering has many benefits, one of them is to increase the employability of the
volunteer, whether the individual is unemployed, a student or employed... People
with disabilities and people over the age of 50 are often excluded from employment.
The aim of this Learning Partnership is to explore the possibilities of volunteering to
enhance employability, with people from these two groups.
The project partners are: VSI, Threshold Finland and the Defence for Children
International, Czech Republic. There are 3 seminars planned for 2012 in the three
countries. Interested –read more here!
Teenage Programme Updates
Volunteers and staff from the Teenage Programme have just returned from a 5-day
Seminar in Bulgaria, which explored best practices for mentoring young people on
volunteering projects. The seminar was hosted by the Bulgaria branch of SCI, and
involved 30 participants from over 10 countries taking part in workshops and
sessions to improve on the quality of SCI’s work in this area.
The Teenage Programme is very happy to welcome back our 3 volunteers from their
6-week European Voluntary Service placement in Ghana in West Africa. The
3 young people, aged 19 -24 years, have been involved in Teenage Programme
activities for a number of years now, and undertook this next challenge to further
develop their skills and experiences and gain an understanding of volunteering in the
global south. The three volunteers were teaching creative classes in schools in
Basua, Ahanta Province, as well as facilitating educational workshops on human
rights, poverty and HIV / Aids Awareness. They each took part in an intensive 4-
week pre-departure training period, as on-arrival training which was provided by
their hosts, Embracing Hidden Talents Network. The project, which was part of a
group EVS short-term project, was funded through a grant from the European
Commission, which provides costs for flights, accommodation, food, vaccinations,
visas and insurance for young people aged 18-30 years.
Religious tolerance, human rights, discrimination, education and drugs. These are
the topics that our volunteers discussed at the Celebration and Reunion day,
which over 25 young people and adult volunteers took part in on Saturday October
22nd in the Greenhouse, Dublin. The young people took part in evaluation activities
for 2011 activities, as well as series of participatory planning workshops on the
issues and topics that they would like to learn more about and highlight in 2012.
They finished the day off with a tribal drumming workshop from Wassa Wassa
drumming and Ugandan food from the Women’s Diaspora Initiative.
Staff and Volunteers in the Teenage Programme are delighted to hear the news that
Johnson Ikebunde has been nominated in the Multicultural Young People’s
Awards 2011. Johnson has been volunteering in the Teenage Programme for over 3
years now, and has taken part in a number of Youth Exchanges, as well as being one
of the active organisers of the Living in Dependence Youth Initiative project, and
participating in volunteering trips and peer education projects. The ceremony will
take place on Friday November 25 th in Dublin City Centre, with the Minister for Youth
Mary Fitzgerald in attendance. If you are interested in attending the event contact
Sara in the VSI office or email the organisers directly on iaciyouth@gmail.com. The
award was won last year by Bob Sita, another long-term volunteer in the Teenage
Programme.
The National Youth Council of Ireland is marking its One World Week in November
with a series of trainings and events exploring the theme of “A Rich Man’s World”.
Young people from the Teenage Programme have participated in activities of the
Youth Advisory Group of the NYCI to pick the theme and develop the resources for
the week, and will attend the “Consume with Care” event in the Irish Aid Centre on
Saturday 19th of November. For more information visit the website –
www.youthdeved.ie/oneworldweek .
Annual Che Guevara Pub Quiz Wednesday, 30th November at 7.30pm in the
Harcourt Hotel, Dublin
The Quiz is hosted by Latin America Solidarity Centre and the Cuba Support Group
Doors Open 7pm, First Question 7.30pm €40 per table of 4; Individuals welcome,
teams will be set up!! For more information contact members@lasc.ie
Act Now on 2015 –Deliver Ireland’s Aid promise
Four weeks from today, Budget 2012 will be announced. We need your
organisation's help to make sure the government stands by the commitment in the
Programme for Government and shows real progress towards 0.7% in this year's
budget.
The e-action is going strong on the Act Now website. So far, over 1000 supporters
have taken action and sent 4000 emails to their TDs. If your organisation and its
supporters haven't taken action yet, please do it today. You can find some resources
for the e-action here.
Secondly, we need your organisation's staff and supporters to write letters and
articles to your local papers explaining how your organisation, (with the support of
Irish Aid) makes a positive difference in people's lives, and how we need the
government's continued support for this work. Thanks for your continued support.
This is the monthly bulletin from Voluntary Service International, 30
Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1. Tel: 01 8551011 email: info@vsi.ie www.vsi.ie